[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 29, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S1853]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRANSPORT OF VIOLENT OFFENDERS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I intend to introduce some legislation 
dealing with violent crime. Before I describe that legislation, I want 
to speak briefly about another piece of legislation that I previously 
introduced called Jeanna's bill, named after an 11-year-old girl from 
Fargo, ND, who was brutally murdered some while ago. I will speak about 
that for a moment today because something has happened in the last 
couple of days of which we ought to be aware.
  This is a picture of a man named Kyle Bell. He is a child killer. He 
molested children. He was sent to prison for 30 years. He was 
eventually convicted of killing Jeanna North from Fargo, ND, and sent 
off to prison.
  As is too often the case in this country, Kyle Bell was remanded to 
the custody of a private company to transport him to a prison in some 
other part of America. That private transport company lost this child 
killer along the way. He escaped. He was not wearing red clothing or an 
orange jumpsuit that said: ``I am a prisoner.'' He was in civilian 
clothes. He was in a van with other prisoners.
  One of the guards of the company that was transporting him apparently 
went in to buy a hamburger or something at a gasoline stop, and the 
other was asleep in the van. Kyle Bell somehow got his shackles off, 
climbed up through the roof of the van, and was gone. Tragically, the 
guards did not notice they had lost a convicted child killer for 9 
hours--9 hours.
  It concerned me when I saw what had happened to this child killer. 
This newspaper piece describes what happened and the manhunt around the 
country for Kyle Bell, a very violent career criminal.
  I put together a piece of legislation and was joined by Senator 
Ashcroft, Senator Leahy, and others, to say that if state and local 
authorities are going to contract with a private company to haul 
convicted killers and violent offenders, at least the company ought to 
have to meet some basic standards. That is just common sense to me. It 
is not now the case.
  Any retired law enforcement officer and their brother-in-law and 
cousin can buy a van, show up at a prison someplace and say: We are 
hired to haul your prisoners. In fact, it has happened all too often. I 
will give an example.
  A husband and wife team showed up at an Iowa State prison to 
transport six inmates, five of them convicted murderers. The warden 
looked at the husband and wife team and said: You have to be kidding 
me. But the prisoners were given to the husband and wife to transport, 
and, of course, they escaped. There is story after story of this same 
circumstance.
  The reason I mention it today is earlier this week in Chula Vista, 
CA, convicted murderer James Prestridge was being transported. He is a 
person convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole. He was 
apparently, according to the Los Angeles Times, being transported from 
Nevada to North Dakota where he was going to be incarcerated under some 
kind of prisoner exchange. This is a convicted killer, to be 
incarcerated for the rest of his life.
  Guess what. Mr. James Prestridge, a convicted killer, is no longer in 
custody. The private company called Extradition International lost him. 
He escaped. They stopped at a bathroom and he overpowered a guard. He 
went back to the van, overpowered the other guard, and this guy was 
gone. He and another violent offender who was with him are on the loose 
today.
  Why is this happening? It does not happen when the U.S. Marshal 
Service transports violent offenders around the country. They are not 
losing violent offenders. But private companies have no standards to 
meet, none at all. Hire a couple of people, rent a van, get your 
brother-in-law, and you are in business. Some States will turn 
convicted murderers over to you to be transported to another part of 
the country.
  This makes no sense to me at all. Convicted killers are being 
transported around our country without the precaution one would expect 
in the transport of violent offenders. Under these circumstances, the 
American people are not safe.
  Again, the bill I have introduced will require any private company 
that transports a violent offender to meet basic standards established 
by the Department of Justice. That bill needs to be heard. We have 
asked for a hearing before the Judiciary Committee. It has bipartisan 
support. Congress needs to pass this legislation this year.

  The escape in Chula Vista, CA, of a convicted murderer is just one 
more example of many escapes from private prisoner transport companies. 
I could stand here for 20 minutes and describe the escapes that have 
occurred with private companies having access to violent offenders. 
That is not in the public interest.
  In my judgment, violent offenders probably ought to be transported 
only by law enforcement. But if some States decide they are going to 
contract with private companies to transport violent offenders around 
this country, then those companies ought to have to meet basic 
standards--standards on how you shackle a violent prisoner, standards 
on what that violent prisoner shall wear when being transported, 
standards on the experience and the training of the guards and the kind 
of equipment that is used.
  But those standards do not exist now. There is none. That is why 
people, such as James Prestridge, a convicted murderer, are on the 
loose. Let's hope no one else loses their life because of this kind of 
incompetence.
  (The remarks of Mr. Dorgan and Mr. Durbin pertaining to the 
introduction of S. 2317 and S. 2318 are located in today's Record under 
``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

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